Forget continuous optimisation. It’s time to lean into slow-living and actually enjoy your time at home.
We’ve all come across those reels telling you how to up your game, battle procrastination, and constantly improve your lifestyle. Whether it’s advocating five am wake-ups or outrageous gym programmes, I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted from videos telling me I need to be working on myself constantly.
Instead, I’m following the slow-living lifestyle. One where we have permission to veg out, potter around the garden, or simply enjoy spending time in our own spaces at home. But first, we have the challenge of creating a space that we actually want to spend time in. That’s where the fun part comes!
If you spend your days lusting after Chelsea-worthy spaces and modern garden designs, wondering which parts you’d sandwich into your own garden, but seem stuck when it comes to pulling a design like this together, you’re not alone. To fix this, we’ve spoken with the professionals to understand how they create a garden design that gives you a place to pause for thought. With their guidance, you’ll soon be on your way to creating a haven that swaps the hustle for healthy harmony.
Vicky Lincoln is a professional garden and landscape designer based in Hampshire. She works with busy homeowners to create beautiful, enduring gardens shaped around the way they live. Her recent showcase garden, Nature's Spa, won Gold and the People's Choice Award at the BBC Gardeners' World Spring Fair.
1. Make Sure Your Garden Caters to Your Needs
Everyone will value something different in how to create a relaxing space outdoors.
It may sound obvious, but before any ground gets broken, it’s essential to understand what you want to achieve from your garden space. A garden design revamp can be a long project to take on — you need to be ready for when that hyperfixation inevitably fades two weeks in, and you’re surrounded by nothing but plants, soil and landscape materials.
Award-winning Gardener's World designer Vicky Lincoln says understanding what matters to her client as an individual is her non-negotiable starting point. “Relaxation looks quite different to different people,” she explains. “I have some clients, for example, whose garden design included a lower deck that’s immersed in planting because it’s where they’re going to do yoga and kettlebell workouts, because that’s what relaxing meant for them.”
If you’re still stuck on where to start, Vicky has a great method to hone in on her client’s preferences. “I often ask people, What’s been your loveliest evening?’ They might say there was a time in Crete, for example, that they had a really intimate dinner with a friend, while someone else would say they love having a large party. Another could say when the whole family gets together, and the kids have a separate area to play. We start to pull those out and think ok, we need a spot for a casual breakfast, or a larger entertainment zone.”
Garden designer Shweta Mehta shares Vicky’s approach, but encourages her clients to focus on their everyday habits. “Before starting out, we always ask how people live rather than socialise. The most successful social spaces are those that feel inviting every day, not just when friends come over. Social spaces in gardens need to be inviting; comfort is always first, you want to sit for a while and feel at ease. Small cozy nooks with one chair to enjoy your morning cuppa are equally necessary.”
Shweta trained in Garden and Planting Design at Capel Manor College, Enfield, after changing careers in her mid-forties from microbiology to pursue her passion for plants and garden design. She aims to create immersive, plant-rich spaces that encourage people to slow down, reconnect with nature and enjoy every season.
2. Slow Down Your Spaces
However, when it comes down to core design principles, Vicky says flow of space is fundamental to creating a calm garden atmosphere that makes people want to linger. “It’s about having a really good layout of spaces and ways of moving around them. It has to feel like it flows. Much like when you go into a well-designed kitchen, and you automatically know your way around and where to find things, a relaxing garden is very similar.”
One useful tool Vicky uses to slow down parts of her designs is the use of garden pathways. “It’s really important, I think, to help people slow down and create relaxing, beautiful spaces which are well constructed and put together. We pay particular attention to paths. Sometimes we’ll make functional paths that are quick and direct, and then we’ll create other longer paths that psychologically welcome you into a space and encourage you to pause for a moment.”
For designer Shweta, it’s important to create pockets of spaces in her designs. “I like to add what I call ‘destination spaces’ that encourage people to explore the garden. These might include a natural swimming pool with a pool house, a greenhouse that's as much for entertaining as it is for growing — imagine long candlelit lunches and dinners surrounded by scented pelargoniums. That would make winter entertaining much more pleasant. A garden room overlooking vegetable and cut flower areas provides another peaceful place to work, relax or arrange freshly cut flowers.”
3. Create Ease
A sense of ease might be down to the seating or just the materials underfoot.
For gardens to make you want to linger, they have to feel easy. But for top garden designers like Vicky, this goes further than you may think. Forget wind chimes, she’s looking for the barefoot factor.
“Barefoot-friendly gardens are usually quite important. You want no barriers to get into that space. I want somewhere where people can kick their heels off — if they even wear heels nowadays — and pad out barefoot into the garden to relax,” explains Vicky. “We’ll draw you out with that first seat that’s nice and close and then continue to give little intriguing views, plants, and sculptures that make you want to keep wandering. I often think ‘how can we make this a space which slows people down and gives them that opportunity to pause?’”
Outdoor seating is just as essential for ease of movement. “Relaxed seating is really important. I always like to put in my designs some spots where you could get home from work, walk outside and flop on them with no effort.”
As Shweta highlights, if you want to lounge for hours, high-quality comfortable seating is a must. “Narrow benches are great to perch on, but to lounge for hours in the garden, comfortable seating is a necessity. Go for cushioned chairs and sofas, or a day bed to lie and read on, or an egg chair but with soft cushions. Make sure the seating is facing each other to ease conversation. Uncomfortable seating won’t be used for long, so steer well clear of that unless you want it as a perch while meandering through your borders.”
4. Focus on Greenery
Studies suggest surrounding yourself with plants will drop your cortisol levels.
Planting and color will always dictate a garden’s overall feel. Shweta’s advice for those gardens that draw you to want to spend time in them? Stick to earthy natural tones.
“Atmosphere can be achieved by choosing a calming, restrained color palette, be it paving or plants,” she says. “Using earthy tones and natural materials for hard landscaping can instantly change the mood of the garden. Color combinations play a huge part in creating a relaxing garden too. Using softer purples, pinks, and an array of greens can help create a calming, relaxing mood. Make your planting pollinator-friendly too — nothing beats the low hum of a border buzzing with wildlife.”
Designer Vicky fully invests in the message fresh greenery inspires in a design. “As someone who is a bit of a plantaholic, I’m bound to say plants, but there is a lot of science about it. Studies have actually measured how people’s cortisol levels drop when they’re surrounded by green. Just a few minutes in a green space can help you relax.”
If you want a designer planting tip, think about repeating plants within a bed to create consistency. We’re not talking a uniform row of geraniums as such, but rather 4-5 different types of low, mid and tall plants that you can mix around within a bed and repeat in other areas of the garden with similar soil conditions and positions. Just make sure your greenery anchors your space with a strong and calming foundation.
5. Bridge the Indoor Outdoor Gap
Indoor-outdoor gardens are still ranking high on the lust list for homeowners, but creating that seamless transition is easier said than done. According to designer Vicky, it’s one of her top client requests, and certainly ticks the box for easy garden access. But for this feature to remain a relaxing and inviting design asset, you’ve got to future-proof it.
“If you’re building an indoor-outdoor space, you’re probably going to have a vast wall of glass," says Vicky. "This is a glorious thing but also a challenge if you’re positioned in a sunny spot, as it will get incredibly hot. A really important part of indoor-outdoor living now is shade. We’ve got quite a few clients who are retrofitting things like pergolas and verandas because it’s just getting too hot, especially this year.”
To accomplish a stylish shaded area outside your living space, Vicky advises taking inspiration from Mediterranean garden designs. “Think about places on holiday, maybe Italy or Spain; they’ve always got a veranda or shaded area so you can enjoy the covered space.” Though if you’re planning on planting a vine to climb your pergola, don’t make this hardscaping rookie error. Vicky explains, “Many people have a vision of something lovely growing around the pergola, like a grapevine or jasmine, but they then don’t leave space in the paving for planting, and later have to rely on pots which can be quite high maintenance.”
Designer Shweta emphasizes the need to consider the home's interior design and how it will interact with the outside. “The interior of the house must be taken into consideration,” she warns. “The garden should reflect the mood of the house and vice versa. Treat the garden as a direct architectural extension of the house. A level threshold between the inside and the outside to eliminate a physical step, but do consider drainage when doing this. While I wouldn't usually recommend using the same flooring indoors and outdoors, as exterior paving needs to be slip-resistant, choosing complementary materials creates the same sense of cohesion without compromising safety.”
Leaving space to linger in a garden design has to be the top of my design list. I want a space that feels welcoming, calm, and low-maintenance. Though there is certainly an art to creating this seamless design, with help from our designers, you can certainly get started on creating your ideal relaxing outdoor space.
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